After being given less than a year to live at the beginning of this year, a 20-year-old is now enjoying a new lease of life after receiving a heart transplant.

Eliza Bell, who is originally from Newton Abbot but is now living in Cornwall, was born with Danon disease, a rare genetic condition which weakens the heart.

She was diagnosed when she was 12 years old and her life since had been dominated by multiple hospital appointments.

Last year her heart significantly deteriorated to the ends stages of heart failure and at the beginning of this year her condition became critical. She was given less than a year to live and was placed on the emergency transplant list.

Eliza a couple of weeks after her transplant with her surgeon Mr Tsui (Image: Eliza Bell)

Eliza said: “I knew how poorly I had become because I ended up in hospital several times for week long stints from last November onwards, but when you're in that situation instinct kicks in and you just try to survive day by day."

"Driving wasn't an option anymore and even walking more than a couple meters left me breathless and dizzy. It meant I couldn't leave the house and had no independence left. It was unbearable.”

Due to her height of 5ft 10 and rare blood group, it proved harder to find a suitable heart. It took five months for a match to be found and a month of that was spent waiting in hospital being supported by an IV dopamine drip to help the function of the heart.

In February Eliza underwent a heart transplant at Royal Papworth Hospital near Cambridge. Eliza's cardiologist advised her to do so there as, unlike a lot of transplant centres, the hospital is still researching into heart transplantation such as the Donation After Circulatory Death (DCD) non beating heart.

The surgery lasted for four hours and she remained in hospital for three-and-a-half weeks after.

Eliza in hospital with her brother

Eliza said: “The surgeons quite literally saved my life when I underwent a DCD heart transplant. I am now a couple months post-transplant and am making really good progress.

“I don't feel constantly fatigued like I used which is such an amazing feeling. Before my condition became worse I was a really confident and spontaneous person which became lost.

“It's great to get back to being me again. In the space of a couple months my life has gone from having no future to now having endless possibilities. It's very surreal.”

While waiting for her transplant, Eliza decided to set up Let the Beat Drop to raise £30,000 for Papworth’s DCD Programme which is funded solely from charitable sources. Her online JustGiving page has so far raised nearly £6,500.

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Eliza said: “There is a worldwide shortage of donor hearts for transplantation, and DCD or non-beating heart transplants have come about as a result of a research team at Royal Papworth Hospital developing a new technique.

“This pioneering technique has enabled surgeons at Papworth to utilise donor hearts from a new group of potential donors whose hearts were previously considered too damaged to transplant.

“The DCD Programme significantly increases the number of hearts available for transplantation and in the first year of the DCD procedure being carried out, the number of people receiving a heart transplant at Papworth increased by 40 per cent.

“Each DCD transplant costs £30,000 and as yet there is no NHS programme to support this new technique. Royal Papworth Hospital can therefore only continue to offer it to patients in the future by securing further charitable funds.”

Eliza back home in Cornwall recovering (Image: Eliza Bell)

Helping towards achieving her target is a fundraiser organised by her father Nigel who was by her bedside during the two months she was in hospital. Joined by two friends Martin Higman and Philip Northcott, he will cycle from Penzance to Papworth Hospital in 24 hours on May 3.

Eliza says she is now looking forward to a healthier future.

“Having this fundraising has really helped me to learn that I can look ahead again and be excited about things in the future without the worry of another hospital drama, or being too ill and having to cancel of commitments,” she said.

“Aside from that I would love to go to university to study social sciences, and perhaps live in a city. The idea of working in the charity sector really interests me. Now I have a new heart the choices will be pretty much endless.

“I'm currently setting up a social media business for small businesses alongside helping my parents in their art shop. It’s all little steps and we all have different time clocks.”